Pollen collection by the western honey bee and common eastern bumble bee foraging in a common landscape and applications for agri-environment schemes

Agricultural landscapes often provide an impoverished environment for bees
given their limited plant and pollen diversity. Agri-environment schemes
(AES) such as flower strips have been developed to improve the quality of
the agricultural environment for bees but their  efficacy
 varies with their composition and, for specific pollinators,
with the value of the available plant species. This study provides a
detailed report of the pollen collection patterns of two bee species, the
western honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) and the common eastern bumble bee
(Bombus impatiens Cresson), over their foraging season. We compared the
floral constancy, pollen richness and diversity of the two bee species and
the pollen morphotypes of bee-collected pollen   in
relation to resource availability. The honey bee was more flower constant
while the bumble bee collected a greater family level diversity of pollen.
While both bee species collected similar resources over their entire
foraging season, the preferred morphotypes in given surveys differed
between bee species. Neither bee species collected resources based on
their availability but indicated patterns of preference and avoidance. We
discuss how such knowledge can inform on the composition of AES to best
sustain these pollinators in more impoverished depauperate agricultural
landscapes.